syncopated.

wish you were here

So, so you think you can tell
Heaven from Hell
Blue skies from pain
Can you tell a green field
From a cold steel rail
A smile from a veil
Do you think you can tell
Did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts
Hot ashes for trees
Hot air for a cool breeze
Cold comfort for change
Did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage

last night in beijing

a group of us were sitting in kfc, killing time before the final meetup, before we left for the airport. talking about people, about girls, about us.

we seem to find ourselves judging people first on appearances and overheard 'rumours', long before actually taking any effort to know the person. the example taken here is from what i was hearing about ricky and royston talking about mun (who was also at the table). about how they used to think in sec 1-2 that he was this 'dao' 'playboy' who's 'smart and proud of it' (to quote some of the words used). and then pern yi was complaining the night before about the behaviour of the softballers in their group.

labels are evil. you can't just go around putting labels on people. then they are usually exaggerations which focus solely on the negative. and finally... who's to say that people aren't going to change for the better? labels aren't going to last.

lets try not to make enemies with everyone, shall we?

How I wish
How I wish you were here
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl
Year after year
Running over the same old ground
What have we found
The same old fears
Wish you were here

this was especially true for me as i really only had 2 relatively close friends in my group - if not for them i'd probably have found myself quite out of phase with everything. so thanks to mark chua and michael shen, i at least had a fun group of people to laugh and hang out with (as well as kick ball with).

i guess some of the other interesting aspects about the trip would include having learnt to play around with dad's camera, cheap prices, soccer, and running around at outrageous times of day, outside of the schedule.

No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white
Just our hands clasped so tight
Waiting for the hint of a spark

If there's no one beside you
When your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark

love,

friend of the night.

Strummed at 5:07 PM (x)

more rhymes

On Monday, when the sun is hot
I wonder to myself a lot:
Now is it true, or is it not,
That what is which and which is what?

On Tuesday, when it hails and snows
The feeling on me grows and grows
That hardly anybody knows
If those are these or these are those.

On Wednesday, when the sky is blue,
And I have nothing else to do,
I sometimes wonder if it's true
That who is what and what is who.

On Thursday, when it starts to freeze
And hoar-frost twinkles on the trees,
How very readily one sees
That these are whose-but whose are these?

On Friday -

On Friday...
I'll be going to bejing!

Strummed at 7:48 PM (x)

cottleston pie

i've been reading the tao of pooh. i remember really loving him many years ago.

cottleston, cottleston, cottleston pie,
a fly can't bird, but a bird can fly.
ask me a riddle and i reply,
"cottleston, cottleston, cottleston pie."

cottleston, cottleston, cottleston pie,
why does a chicken? i don't know why.
ask me a riddle and i reply,
"cottleston, cottleston, cottleston pie"

cottleston, cottleston, cottleston pie,
a fish can't whistle and neither can i.
ask me a riddle and i reply,
"cottleston, cottleston, cottleston pie."

living under the name of Mr. Sanders

i had a great time laughing today.

Strummed at 10:08 PM (x)

'there is no finishing line'

exhausting stuff.

Dear Colin, as I was telling you about the patient I saw in Seattle who had just completed a 100 miles marathon before coming to surgery at 65. I thought it was a most amazing story. The same nite I went to dinner with the professor of urology of Washington U (whom one of my registrars, the tall Sim HG, is working with now), who showed me two posters which was given to him by one of his college mates many years ago.

One was captioned 'there is no finishing line" - showing a runner through the woods and another was called "the mississipi steps", which showed a zig zag set of steps leading down to the river from about 500 meters up, where these guys used to trained in their off hours to prepare for their races in college.

The indomitable spirits of these guys just showed through so brilliantly I was inspired.

This evening I ran through the streets of Fukoaka behind the bicycles so that they kept the traffic off in about 10 degrees pleasant temp. I reached the port area which was blowing a stiff 10 knots with sprays and white caps everywhere. I thought about your experience and wished you have the same positive spirit. Maybe it is not the outcome but the getting there that is most precious, since there is no finishing line anyway. After one accomplishment, there is yet another challenge. One is only as good as the last race. The hardest steel is moulded only with the hottest fire. Believe in yourself.


i hope you don't mind my editing your bad english here and there. thanks a lot.


oooh. talking about finishings.

"man is incomplete with woman...

after that, he's finished."

Strummed at 10:00 PM (x)

happy songs for happy people.

at first i was thinking of ranting a bit about how school has been going, but two things happened this morning that pretty much made me smile.

roll roll roll your sail
gently down the leech
merrily merrily merrily merrily
rain is such a bitch

roll roll roll your boat
in front of the jury
merrily merrily merrily merrily
do your seven-twenty

mogwai. cute things aren't they?



make your own mogwai origami!






oh wait. hold on.

mogwai is a BAND.



and they're god damn coming down to singapore.

And it's hard to hold a candle
In the cold November rain

Strummed at 9:12 PM (x)

missing.

i miss simpsons.

if i told you a secret
you won't tell a soul
will you hold it and keep it alive

cause it's burning a hole
and i can't get to sleep
and i can't keep alive in this lie

if the world isn't turning
your heart won't return
anyone
anything
anyhow

if it's real what i'm feeling
there's no makebelieving
the sound of the wings of the flight of a dove

baby
love will come through
it's just waiting for you.

oh, woe is the compulsive liar.


setting hearts ablaze, someday we'll know
why the sky is blue.

But I can't help the feeling
I float through the ceiling.

earlier in the week i was looking my drawers for coloured paper.

i found my old archive of the optimist days. sof rankings from 1999 and 2000, results of my first top 10 finishes, articles of beijing 2008 (a pic of my old humpel boat) and of '13-year old tops at world meet'.

which reminded of what i had thought on that dreadfully long (and teary) bus ride home with melcolm, after the 3rd day in doha. -thanks mel, for just being there after an eventful day.

if we could put all the best singapore sailors on a level playing field, i.e. same boat, weight, consistent conditions, course, sane umpires. where you win on racing smart, on mental strength.

who'd come out on top?

wearn haw charles shaw her ben tan roy seng leong stanley yuan zhen wee chin cai melcolm dawn maxi fendi sean lee timothy seet griz.

Strummed at 11:35 AM (x)

'the phoenix rises up from the ground, and all these wars are over'

i don't know anyone.

talked with giba yesterday about asian games selection.

option 1. i could try for the radial in doha. but apparently i'll need to sail full rig at three regattas (asia pac, kiel, enoshima) to have a go at selection. i guess i don't really mind a bigger sail, but it's the latter two races that worry me - i really don't think i have a chance in wind above 8 knots.

up till now i still don't see the sense in having to qualify with a larger sail in overpowering winds. even worse, mark robinson hinted that winter in doha might bring even lighter wind then we saw a few weeks ago.

so...

option 2. sail the 4.7.

just that the selection policy isn't out yet. so i don't know what will happen. we may well hold our trials in the byte. (!!!)

as of now, i told him tentatively i'll aim for 4.7 in december. but i disagreed with him on one point, about maintaining weight - 4.7 is not the long term goal. hypertrophy it is.

but it'll mean 4 times gym a week - and sch ends at 440 on three days!

it's all rather complex eh.

and i've realised now that quite a few people have moved up into the full rig over the last two weeks... cai, poh, elliot, shaun, and most surprisingly calvin.

"what's the point?"

flat out in 6 knots is just crazy. maybe i just have a phobia of moving up.


i'm beginning to get sick of explaining 101 times how i got more letters than numbers on the scoreboard in asc.



the weather hasn't been altogether kind to me lately.

. . .

reading garfield on friday morning. "even his imagination is desperate."

what's with imaginary numbers? why come up with numbers you can't comprehend? lol. jon must have invented them.

i can't keep up with school.

-somewhere a clock is ticking.

Strummed at 10:26 AM (x)